Modern Arbitration Bill completed, awaiting Cabinet’s approval – AG

Guyana is one step closer to becoming the arbitration capital in the Region with the completion of its first-ever Modern Arbitration Bill.
Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, recently disclosed during his weekly programme – Issues in the News – that the Bill was now ready and it was expected to undergo a final set of reviews before being taken before Cabinet for approval and then the National Assembly when it resumes.
“A lot of work has gone into it and it is now completed. The Attorney General Chambers will send it one last time to important stakeholders for their input and then it is going to go to Cabinet for consideration and then to Parliament,” Nandlall indicated.
The Legal Affairs Minister explained that the Bill was extracted from a Model Bill of the Caribbean that was crafted by IMPACT Justice – a regional justice sector reform project funded by the Government of Canada to improve access to justice in the Caribbean. However, Guyana’s Arbitration Bill contains significant dimensions that were specifically tailored for the local environment.
The Guyana Government had retained the services of two United States-based law firms to review the piece of legislation and even conduct arbitration workshops here for lawyers in the State sector, private practice and the Private Sector.
Additionally, IMPACT Justice did a series of trainings and workshops on arbitration in Guyana focusing specifically on this bill.
According to AG Nandlall, once passed into law, this bill will form the foundation for commercial and domestic arbitration to be done in Guyana. The proposed legislation contains key provisions of the UNCITRAL Model Law on Arbitration, which is the international gold standard rule regarding arbitration.
“This bill also permits international arbitral companies or companies that are offering arbitration services to locate in Guyana and operate under the Bill. It allows for judiciary-driven arbitration as well, as it allows for parties to decide between or among themselves to take their disputes for resolution by arbitration utilising the law. It will permit international arbitration companies operating in the arbitration capitals in the world to come to Guyana to do arbitration if they wish,” the Minister noted.
With the enactment of the Arbitration Bill, the Government would be persuading companies executing contracts in Guyana or with Guyana or Guyanese companies to choose Georgetown as the seat for the settlement of disputes by arbitration.

Nandlall further pointed out that many of the international and commercial agreements being executed presently in Guyana or covering local operations contain arbitration clauses as the desired mechanism of settling disputes. But the seat of that arbitration is outside of Guyana, therefore, once this bill becomes law, it will influence companies to situate or identify Guyana as the seat to do their arbitration.
“It will bring a lot of international dispute resolutions to these shores; it will bring a lot of revenue to these shores; it will bring a lot of employment to Guyanese and of course, once the arbitration takes place here, all the monies expended in relation thereto are going to be done here. International arbitrators will have to come; they will have to stay at hotels; witnesses will have to come and they will have to stay at hotels. So, Guyana is going to be benefiting from almost every conceivable perspective,” the Attorney General noted.
He further outlined that once Guyana was self-sufficient with regard to arbitration, the Government would move onto the second stage to refine the process and the infrastructure to such an extent that the country truly becomes an attractive destination for arbitration in the Caribbean, Latin America, and South America.
“This bill will lay the foundation for that… The truth of the matter is that more and more companies across the globe are choosing arbitration as the preferred method of resolving their commercial disputes. So, whether they want to go through the courts, we are building an efficient judicial system. If they want to go to arbitration, we are building an efficient modern arbitration system as well.
“The first step in that direction is to get the law right and I believe, respectfully, that we have the law here. We now have to begin the educational process so that we have an educated and qualified population to serve the sector and where best to start than the university itself that will be graduating the lawyers and those who wish to be academically trained in the area of arbitration,” the Legal Affairs Minister stressed.
Already, Nandlall has reached out to the University of Guyana and encouraged the tertiary institution to include a commercial arbitration course in its Bachelor of Laws Degree programme in order to familiarise law students on arbitration law.
In keeping with its commitment to create a modern platform for arbitration as an effective method of settling commercial and other disputes in the country, the Government of Guyana has established an Arbitration Unit.
The Arbitration Unit will liaise with the Judiciary and key stakeholders at periodic intervals as this initiative is part of the Government of Guyana’s declared intention to create modern infrastructure for the arbitration and conciliation of commercial disputes in Guyana.
The Unit was established by AG Nandlall and comprises representatives from various stakeholder organisations. These include Jamela AAli, SC, from the Bar Association of Guyana; Attorney Suriyah Sabsook from the Berbice Bar Association; Norman McLean from the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and from the AG’s Chambers, Deputy Chief Parliamentary Counsel Joann Bond and Deputy Solicitor General Deborah Kumar with AG Nandlall as the Chairman. (G-8)